Page 482 - war-and-peace

Chapter XIII

That same night, Rostov was with a platoon on skirmish-
ing duty in front of Bagration’s detachment. His hussars were
placed along the line in couples and he himself rode along
the line trying to master the sleepiness that kept coming
over him. An enormous space, with our army’s campfires
dimly glowing in the fog, could be seen behind him; in
front of him was misty darkness. Rostov could see nothing,
peer as he would into that foggy distance: now something
gleamed gray, now there was something black, now little
lights seemed to glimmer where the enemy ought to be, now
he fancied it was only something in his own eyes. His eyes
kept closing, and in his fancy appearednow the Emperor,
now Denisov, and now Moscow memoriesand he again hur-
riedly opened his eyes and saw close before him the head
and ears of the horse he was riding, and sometimes, when
he came within six paces of them, the black figures of hus-
sars, but in the distance was still the same misty darkness.
‘Why not?... It might easily happen,’ thought Rostov, ‘that
the Emperor will meet me and give me an order as he would
to any other officer; he’ll say: ‘Go and find out what’s there.’
There are many stories of his getting to know an officer in
just such a chance way and attaching him to himself! What
if he gave me a place near him? Oh, how I would guard him,
how I would tell him the truth, how I would unmask his

482 War and Peace